Practice Report (April 11): Update on Fowler

It was all business during today’s practice, as head coach Bruce Boudreau put his players through a brisk 40-minute session at Honda Center.

Today was originally scheduled as a day off for the players, but after yesterday’s performance, Boudreau had his players back on the ice.

“Today was sort of a 40-minute work [day]. Just work, today,” said Boudreau. “I had a long, long video session and talk with them. You’re glad the break has come because they need the rest, because there are a lot of sore body parts out there.

“Is this the time to all of a sudden be so mad and give them tough love, or do it the other way around? You want to correct the mistakes right away. But at the same time, you’d be defeating the purpose if all of a sudden we worked them into the ground on what is supposed to be the two [days off] because we have a little bit of a rest time.

“Tomorrow will be a teaching day. We’ve got a lot of things to go over. But again, at this time of year, if they’re not in tremendous shape already then I don’t know what’s going to get them in tremendous shape.”

FOWLER UPDATECam Fowler played only 4:35 last night before leaving the game with an upper body injury.

“He’s up and walking,” said Boudreau. “I just asked him how he was feeling, and he said ‘A lot better.’ If he practiced tomorrow, that would be great. It’s hard for me to say what position Cam’s in.”

On the incident itself, Boudreau said “It was a very little thing. I think he just twisted his body the wrong way.”

‘I WANT THEM TO BE ACCOUNTABLE’Boudreau was asked if he analyzed every bit of last night’s game tape or opted to torch it in the parking lot.

“You can learn stuff from everything,” said Boudreau. “I always believed that if you just throw it away and say ‘Forget that game,’ then it’s the easy way out. All my mistakes are forgiven type-thing. I want them to see their mistakes so we don’t make them anymore.

“It’s not like getting a mulligan. When they’re going good, it’s a pat on the back. When they’re going bad, it’s a kick in the [rear]. It’s not a big difference sometimes. You have to be accepting of both if you’re going to take any accountability on yourself.

“So if you just take that tape and throw it out, then there’s no accountability because everybody says ‘We just had a bad game.’ I want them to be accountable. I want them to understand what they did wrong and where we made our mistakes, and not to do them again, hopefully, for any time soon.”

BONINO UPDATEAlthough he didn’t participate in the entire practice, today marked the third consecutive day on the ice for Nick Bonino, who was wearing a light blue practice jersey indicating his injured status.